BUFFALO, N.Y. – Identifying discrimination is a necessary
first step toward confronting and ultimately eliminating the stain
of prejudice, yet victims may be unlikely to recognize some types
of discrimination unless they have higher self-esteem, according to
the results of a new study by two University at Buffalo
psychologists.

The study’s results highlight the density of the
discrimination target’s burden, faced first with bigotry and
then with the onus of pointing out that behavior.

Attributing personal fate to another person’s prejudice,
however, is not easy and significant personal and social costs
accompany the individual’s action.

Yet acknowledging the existence and effects of prejudice and
overcoming the costs of doing so can later initiate more collective
types of action that contribute to correcting the problem, says
Wendy Quinton, whose study with Mark Seery appears in the journal
Social Psychological and Personality Science.

The study focused on Asian-Americans as targets of racial
prejudice and discrimination, an understudied group in the
scientific literature. The authors say the power of targets of
prejudice uniting to confront discriminatory treatment can be
viewed through historical movements, such as the American Civil
Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement, action on behalf of
legalizing same-sex marriage and, most recently, the protests in
Ferguson, Missouri.

“The perpetrator is very unlikely to admit to
discriminating against someone,” says Quinton.
“It’s unfortunate, but if targets don’t call
attention to discrimination it’s unlikely that anyone else
will.”

Quinton says the difficulty of coming forward is compounded by
previous research findings showing how people who identify
themselves as victims of discrimination can be viewed negatively by
others, who often see targets as complainers, even when there is
clear and indisputable evidence of unfair treatment.

And though this type of overt racism is still present in
society, a more subtle discrimination exists as well.

“Most of the discrimination people face in modern society
is ambiguous,” says Seery. “It’s a situation that
is important to address because it’s easy for observers to
miss. So again, the responsibility of attribution is on the target.
And that’s when self-esteem really matters.”

“We found that self-esteem is a personal resource for
recognizing this kind of ambiguous prejudice,” adds Quinton.
“When prejudice is obvious, people are likely to make an
attribution regardless of their level of self-esteem. When
it’s less clear, those with higher self-esteem are more
likely to make an attribution than those with lower
self-esteem.”

In the context of discrimination, it’s a novel way of
approaching the role of self-esteem, which is often examined as a
consequence: for instance, does making an attribution to
discrimination protect a target’s self-esteem.

“We flipped that question in this study and looked at
self-esteem as a coping resource that might help people make
the kind of attribution that’s necessary in order to address
prejudice and discrimination in society.”

Participants for the study were pre-tested for self-esteem and
later evaluated for what was ostensibly presented as a creativity
test. All participants were debriefed afterwards and asked for
permission to use their data.

Everyone was intentionally given low creativity scores from a
white evaluator whose comments fell into one of three categories: a
non-specific “poor quality” with no specter of
prejudice; a blatantly prejudiced response that explicitly used
insensitive language as the reason for poor quality; and a response
that was less clear, only hinting at prejudice.

Those participants with high self-esteem had a lower threshold
for acknowledging the veiled suggestions of discrimination, such
that the difference in self-esteem emerged only when prejudicial
cues were ambiguous.

“Among Asian cultures in general, there is a norm of
self-criticism. After experiencing failure, it’s desirable to
focus on what the individual can do better,” says Seery.
“That might be an adaptive response that motivates
self-improvement, but in the context of potentially being
discriminated against, it works precisely against the very thing
people need to do in order to identify that discrimination has
happened and do something about it.”

Though the results of this study can only be interpreted in
terms of Asian-Americans and looked at a specific event rather than
general perceptions of discrimination in daily life, Quinton says
the basic idea that if you don’t call attention to
discrimination it is never going to be addressed is something that
remains valid and works for all groups.